


it'll all make sense again

by MidnightMew



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Can be read as platonic or pre-slash - Freeform, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, Platonic Relationships, Possibly Pre-Slash, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, Tony Stark Has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-06-18 04:26:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15477642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidnightMew/pseuds/MidnightMew
Summary: Tony is still haunted by nightmares of Afghanistan, luckily he doesn't have to suffer through them alone-"The nightmares were still haunting him, months after he had arrived home from Afghanistan. It hadn’t been as bad at the beginning, he had put all his energy into Iron Man and hadn't had even a moment to stop and consider what had actually happened to him. He had slept as little as he could, wanting the time to work, but of course he couldn't keep up with this self-destructive schedule of his forever.So now he had to sleep, and with the sleep came the nightmares. He dreamed mainly, of drowning, and of Yinsen’s death and of being stuck in that cave for the rest of his life. He cried into his pillow, and then he scolded himself for crying, because that's what his father would've done had he been here, which only made him cry more.He didn't know what to do, he didn't know how to make the terror stop, he just wanted to be able to sleep. He was tired, but he couldn't close his eyes without feeling the water fill his lungs, but he just wanted to sleep and not feel this anymore."





	it'll all make sense again

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Dodie's song 'secret for the mad'
> 
> The relationship in this is written as pre-slash, but can be read as platonic if you would rather. 
> 
> Content Warnings- Nightmares of Trauma, Torture (waterboarding), Slight Suicidal Thoughts, Self Destructive Tendancies, Description of Panic Attacks

Water, _flooding his lungs, he was going to drown here, he was never going to go home again. A brief moment of air, a rasping gasp for breath, and then his head was plunged down into the water again. He couldn't breathe, he wasn't going to make it, he couldn't, he couldn't breathe, he couldn't breathe._

 

Tony Stark woke up gasping for breath, clutching at his chest. He could breathe, he reassured himself, feeling the gentle move of his chest up and down. He was home now, he managed to get out, and he was okay.

He scrambled at his bedside table for his phone, and blearily tapped at the screen to where Rhodey was on his speed dial. He was still breathing heavily when the phone rung, and he heard the the click of Rhodey picking up.

'Tony, tony?’ he sounded slightly panicked, 'what’s wrong, are you alright?’

And when Tony spoke his voice trembled, betraying the pain and fear he was trying to conceal.

'I, um, I'm alright, not in danger I mean, but, could you, do you think you could come over?’ and he didn't sound like Tony Stark, genius, playboy, billionaire, philanthropist, at that moment. He didn't sound like Iron Man either.

He sounded like Tony Stark, aged 15 on his first day at MIT, he sounded like Tony Stark, he sounded like Tony Stark aged 17, upon hearing the news that his parents had died. He sounded broken, sad and utterly defeated, so of course Rhodey replied,

'I’m on my way, I'll be about ten minutes. Do you need me to bring anything? Do you want me to keep talking to you until I get there?’

And Tony felt like the luckiest man in the world to have a friend like that. 'No, I'll, I'll be fine. Just be as quick as you can okay. Ask Jarvis to let you in.’ And his voice shook, as he started crying and hung up the phone.

 

The nightmares were still haunting him, months after he had arrived home from Afghanistan. It hadn’t been as bad at the beginning, he had put all his energy into Iron Man and hadn't had even a moment to stop and consider what had actually happened to him. He had slept as little as he could, wanting the time to work, but of course he couldn't keep up with this self-destructive schedule of his forever.

So now he had to sleep, and with the sleep came the nightmares. He dreamed mainly, of drowning, and of Yinsen’s death and of being stuck in that cave for the rest of his life. He cried into his pillow, and then he scolded himself for crying, because that's what his father would've done had he been here, which only made him cry more.

He didn't know what to do, he didn't know how to make the terror stop, he just wanted to be able to sleep. He was tired, but he couldn't close his eyes without feeling the water fill his lungs, but he just wanted to sleep and not feel this anymore. But he couldn't, and his mind was stuck in this awful, endlessly repeating loop. And he couldn't breathe, he was breathing, but the air didn't seem to be entering his lungs, he couldn't breathe, he couldn't-

And then the door clicked open and Rhodey came in, dressed hurriedly in sweatpants and an old t shirt, the laces on his shoes not even tied. He came over to Tony, and sat down on the side of his bed.

'Can I give you a hug?’ he asked Tony, who was glad be asked, because there were times when touching Tony would make him shake uncontrollably and only hurt him worse. But right now, Tony wanted to feel Rhodey's arms around him, warm and soft and a million miles from the endless cold nights of Afghanistan and the solid rock ground that had been his only place to sleep. So, he gave a small nod, and leant back, relaxing into Rhodey, tears still trickling down his cheeks.

They didn't move from this position for a long time, Rhodey running his hands through Tony’s hair and stroking circles into his back. Tony's breathing slowed as he matched it with Rhodey's.

'Do you want to talk about it?’ Rhodey asked after a while, and Tony remembered that he had called Rhodey out of the blue in the middle of the night, and without question, he was here, arms around him, comforting him. And Tony shook his head a little, before speaking anyway.

'Nightmare. I couldn't, I was, it was back in Afghanistan.’

And that was all he said, and Rhodey understood. 'Do you want me to stay? Is there anything you want- I could make you hot chocolate or tea or something?’

'Tea actually sounds good.’ Tony said, for something warm always helped to ground him. 'I can get it delivered or something, I just don't want you to leave.’

So Rhodey stood up, and scooped up Tony with him. Sometimes Tony forgot how much taller and stronger his friend was than him, and it comforted him that Rhodey could pick him up with such ease. He leant into Rhodey's chest as he walked over to the elevator, and asked Jarvis to take them to the kitchen, Rhodey grabbing a blanket from the pile beside his bed on the way.

Once they got to the kitchen, he sat Tony down on the counter, and bundled him up in the blanket. He was still shaking a little, as Rhodey set up mugs and filled the kettle.

 

They sat in silence as they waited for the kettle to boil, and then as Rhodey made the tea, Tony spoke up.

‘It was the water. It's always the water.’ And Rhodey didn't question him as vague as he was being, just handed him a mug of steaming hot tea and joined him on the kitchen counter.

'They nearly drowned me in it, again and again, and then just when I thought I was about to die, when I thought it would finally just be  _over_ -’ his voice cracked as he spoke, and he started to cry a little bit, body shaking with the quiet sobs. 'And then they would pull me up and I could finally breathe, just for a few seconds, and then it was back into the water. And, and I just wanted it to stop. I just wanted it all to be over. I wanted to die, I just wanted to go home. I didn't care, just, just as long as I didn't have to endure it for a second longer.’

And he had thought it was over at long last. That was before he returned home, to have the illusion of his life back, but the torture resurfacing every night when he closed his eyes. And he leant into Rhodey and sobbed once again, it was becoming far more of a common occurrence than Tony would've liked.

'I just want it to stop now.’ He admitted, voice small, utterly unlike the loud, flamboyant playboy the world knew. 'I can't live with this every night.’

And Rhodey, didn't run from Tony, didn't say he couldn't deal with Tony calling him several times a week in the middle of the night because he had a nightmare. He stayed. And Tony could not be more grateful that he stayed. Stayed with him.

By the time he had relaxed enough to take a sip of the honey and lemon tea, it was lukewarm at best, but he drank the entire thing anyway. It wasn't the best, given it's less than optimal temperature, but it was comforting and it relaxed Tony so that was good.

 

 

'Do you want to try and go back to sleep? I know you have a lot of meetings tomorrow, but if you're too tired in the morning I'm sure Pepper would cancel them for you if I explained the situation to her.’

'No, I can't miss meetings, I have to go to them, even if I'm running on about three hours of broken sleep.’

'You should try and get some sleep now though,’ Rhodey protested, worrying a little about Tony. This man wouldn't stop working if the room around him was on fire and he couldn't help but be rather concerned for Tony's health from time to time.

'I can't Rhodey,’ he said, and he looked up at him with a pleading look that made Rhodey want to comply to all of his demands. 'I can't go back to sleep, I'll have the nightmare again and I can't, I just can't do that.’

'Is there anything I could do to help? Would it make you feel better if I stayed with you, I could do my best to keep the nightmares at bay, but unfortunately, I can't see inside your mind. God knows what I would find if I could...,’ he muttered under his breath, but loud enough for Tony to hear and give a weak chuckle at.

'That, that would be nice.’ He admitted, taking Rhodey's mug and walking over to dump them into the sink. He could deal with those tomorrow. 'I can't make any guarantees that I won't wake you up with screaming in the middle of the night, or rather,’ he paused, raising his wrist to look at his ridiculously expensive watch, 'the middle of the morning. Oh god, I'm sorry I interrupted your sleep.’ He started off on his rambling again and Rhodey had to laugh a little at that.

'Tony Stark apologising, what has the world come to?’ he joked, with a warm smile on his face, 'Don’t worry about me Tony, if you need help I'll always be here.’ He got off the kitchen counter, before scooping Tony up again, still bundled in the blanket. 'And I won't mind if you wake me up if you have a nightmare, god knows you've been here for me after I've come back from some hellish times in the air force, so think of this as me paying you back for that if that makes you feel better.’

'Okay, I guess,’ Tony said, voice muffled by the blanket as Rhodey walked them back to the elevator.

 _What floor Colonel Rhodes?_ Sounded the electronic voice of Jarvis as the doors slid shut.

'Penthouse, Tony’s suite,’ he replied, and the elevator started to make its way up.

Tony snuggled into his chest a little bit, he was never this comfortable around people normally, but this was Rhodey, and Rhodey was always the exception to the rule.

Rhodey set him down on the bed, and he managed to untangle himself from the blanket and slipped under the covers. He made sure not to sprawl out across the centre of his ridiculously large bed, for he had to make sure there was space for Rhodey. Knowing him, he would probably put up with him if he did anyway, but Tony was trying to be nice to him to make up for the fact that he had called him over in the early hours of the morning.

Now that the nightmare had faded from the front of his mind, he felt a bit silly for overreacting so much. His old therapist would have scolded him for calling it an overreaction, but he was sure he could’ve handled okay without making his friend get out of bed at a ridiculous hour in the morning.

‘I’m sorry,’ he mumbled as he settled down on the bed, getting comfortable.

‘Don’t be, like I said, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it.’

Tony noticed that Rhodey was still standing beside the bed, so he lifted up the cover, gesturing for him to get in. So Rhodey kicked off his shoes, and clambered in beside him, wrapping an arm around him.

The presence of the other man made Tony feel so much safer, and if the nightmares returned, at least he would wake up with Rhodey beside him. And when he drifted off, the two of them snuggled together, his sleep was calm and dreamless.

 

He woke up to an alarm from Jarvis, after what felt like merely minutes. That was the problem with waking up in the middle of the night, by the time he got back to sleep it was almost time for him to go to work already.

Rhodey was still asleep beside him, but the two were so tangled together that Tony thought that getting up without waking him would be a near impossible feat. He tried, nonetheless, for if Tony Stark was good at anything, it was making the impossible happen. Alas, this time it did not, and Rhodey stirred a little, letting out a sleepy yawn that made Tony smile at just how cute it was.

‘Where you going?’ he asked, words slurred by sleep as Tony got out of bed, heading to his ensuite to splash his face with some water, and plaster far too much concealer under his eyes at an attempt to even start to hide the dark circles under his eyes.

‘Just getting dressed, you don’t have work today, do you?’ Now as an official member of the Avengers team, Rhodey spent most of his time either on missions, or at home. Tony was the only one of the team with a job outside of saving the world. He loved the work he did for the research and development department, and he wouldn’t give it up for anything, but sometimes it was a little annoying to see the Avengers just chilling in their downtime between missions, while he had work to do, meetings to attend and deadlines to make.

‘No, but I’ll join you for breakfast when you’re ready.’ Tony grinned at that, something to make his morning a little more pleasant before he headed off for work. He had given up on the concealer, it had helped to an extent, but it was still clear that he hadn’t slept. So, he left it at that, and walked over to his walk-in wardrobe to pick out an outfit. He had a ridiculous number of suits, but today, all he honestly wanted to wear were sweatpants and a hoodie.

He compromised in the end, with his comfiest work trousers, and a shirt that toed the line between business and casual. While he did suspect that turning up in his pyjamas would be a bad idea, he reasoned that they couldn’t object to this. It was his company after all, it’s not like he could get fired. Well, Pepper did like to threaten him with it sometimes, but he knew she was never serious. At least, he sincerely hoped she wasn’t serious. With Pepper you could never quite tell.

At least he was actually showing up for the meetings today- he did try his best to, Pepper would probably laugh out loud if she heard that, but it was true- most days he didn’t go to them, either out of forgetfulness, being distracted at the lab, but rarely out of actually not being bothered.

He met Rhodey in the kitchen a floor down from his penthouse suite. Sometimes he felt like he had far more space than he knew what to do with, so it was nice to have other people around to fill it with. They sat down at the table with waffles, Rhodey’s with syrup like a sensible human being, Tony’s covered in chocolate sauce then piled high in whipped cream and sprinkles. Hey, he had had a rough night, okay. He deserved this.

‘Did you sleep better then? I don’t think you woke up in the middle of the night unless I slept through it?’

‘Yep, completely dreamless. It was nice, really.’ He took a mouthful of his waffles, and when he saw Rhodey was laughing at him, he reached up to his face to wipe off the whipped cream that was just about everywhere. ‘Maybe you just need to move in?’ He joked, ‘It would definitely help me sleep better.’

‘And you wouldn’t charge me for rent, I hope, being the billionaire that you are of course.’

He laughed, but then the tone of his voice morphed into something rather more serious. ‘For real though Tony, if that’s what it takes to get the nightmares to go away then I have no objections to cuddling you in bed for the time being.’

Tony didn’t know what to say for that, he had said it jokingly, but of course he knew that what he was saying was true. It helped having someone else there, and even if it didn’t get rid of the nightmares all together, it certainly helped if he woke up screaming in the middle of the night to ground him far more quickly.

That had been one of the hardest things about breaking up with Pepper, as selfish as it sounded, it did miracles for his panic attacks to have someone else there to help him through it, and he had spent many long nights suffering alone since. He didn’t blame her at all, they had broken up for entirely unrelated reasons- they just didn’t seem to work together and had at long last admitted that maybe both of them would be better off seeing other people- but he did miss her a lot when he woke up hyperventilating, unable to tell his nightmares from reality.

And that brought him back to Rhodey’s offer. He wanted nothing more than to say yes, nightmares aside, cuddling with Rhodey was nice and it made his stupidly massive bed feel slightly less empty. But that would feel like far too big of a favour to ask from a friend.

And then of course there was the issue of that, they were, friends. Maybe, Tony would be happy with something else, but he would go to all extents necessary to make sure Rhodey didn’t feel uncomfortable around him for that reason. He was already overly affectionate with him, and it had been generally accepted as just a thing the two of them did, but he felt like sharing a bed as a more permanent arrangement as opposed to just a one off, might be too far. He didn’t want Rhodey to feel like he was pushing himself on him, he knew the other man was probably straight and had long come to terms with it. But he reckoned that maybe this would be a step too far, despite the fact that he wanted nothing more in the world than to say yes to that offer.

‘I couldn’t ask you to do that,’ he said, voice quiet, and he knew Rhodey could see right through the lie he was telling.

‘Seriously Tony, if it helps you, I’m all for it. And I wouldn’t mind someone to share my bed with either, it gets cold alone.’ He let out a chuckle that made Tony grin, and feel something warm inside that he couldn’t quite identify, and he wasn’t really sure he wanted to know either. And Tony couldn’t help the words that slipped out of his mouth next, seriously, he hadn’t meant for them to be out loud.

‘Okay then, I might just take you up on that offer.’ And then he realised what he had said, and tried to hastily backtrack, to Rhodey’s protests that it was fine, and he didn’t need to take back what he had said at all.

‘Okay, we’ll leave the topic for now, but I have literally nothing on today, so I’ll be here when you get back.’

Tony nodded, shoving a massive piece of waffle into his mouth as to have an excuse for his silence. Rhodey sure did know how to make good waffles.

 

Work that day felt slightly surreal, he still wasn’t quite back to normal after last night, it often took a while for things to settle down properly. He felt rather out of it all through the meetings, and not just in the normal daydreaming type of way. More like he couldn’t be sure if any of this was real, it was, he knew it was, but something didn’t feel quite right. As if overnight someone had changed things in the universe that were so slight he couldn’t identify what was different, just that something was wrong. It scared him a little, the fact that nothing felt real.

Maybe he should go back to therapy, he had gone for a while, but he hadn’t found it helpful. Though that was partially due to the fact that he had been adamant that there was absolutely nothing wrong with him, despite the fact that he woke up drenched in sweat and screaming from nightmares several times a week. It might do him good to go back, have someone to talk to, to spill all his awful thoughts out to. Maybe it would keep him from going completely off the rails, the way it felt like he was heading with increasing speed at this moment in time.

He hadn’t participated much at the meetings, but most of the people there were just shocked at the fact that he had even bothered to show up instead of spending all day, every day, in his lab. It was nice to be more involved in the company again, don’t get him wrong, making Pepper CEO had definitely been the right choice, and you couldn’t force him to go back to that again, but it was nice to see what was going on, see how his new products were being put to use and marketed. It was interesting, it was so incredibly different from his work with the avengers, which made for a particularly good distraction.

 

And he returned to Rhodey sitting in the living room, feet up and typing something on his laptop. Tony could get used to this, it was almost like having the old college days back when Rhodey was around. Those days had been so much simpler, he’d had to deal with his father of course and the constant media scrutiny he had been under, but at least he could shut his eyes without having flashbacks to being waterboarded in Afghanistan for god sake.

Maybe he could convince Rhodey to stay for no reason other than he liked it. He felt bad for thinking it, he knew Rhodey had a life outside of being friends with him, and he was used to people hating him for constantly bossing them around by now. He knew he couldn’t get Rhodey to come and live with him just because that’s what he wanted, but he could hope that Rhodey would stay anyway of his own accord. But when had anyone ever stuck with him out of choice. The other avengers tolerated him, and he was sure that despite what they told him, if he had been happy to let anyone else become iron man they wouldn’t’ve missed him.

‘Tony?’ He heard Rhodey call and was jerked out of his head. ‘I’ve been trying to talk to you for a few minutes, you okay?’ He walked over to Tony and wrapped an arm around him protectively. Tony leaned into the touch, warm and comforting as it always was with Rhodey.

‘I’m fine,’ he said, voice muffled from where his face was pressed into Rhodey’s side. ‘Just thinking ‘bout stuff.’

‘Stuff?’ Rhodey enquired, and Tony couldn’t blame him for asking, he hadn’t exactly given any explanation.

‘Just about last night. I’m having these damn nightmares more and more, they seemed to be going away at long last, but after New York they’ve come back full force.’ He said, ‘I mean I guess it makes sense, but they don’t seem to be giving any sign of slowing again, am I going to be awake screaming every night for the rest of my life?’ He asked, meaning to sound jokey, but his voice cracked at the question and he hastily swiped at his eyes.

Tony from a few years ago would probably laugh at him if he could see himself now, but then again a few years ago his only concern when he went to sleep was who was in bed with him, or who's  bed he was in for that matter.

‘I’m sure they won’t last for ever Tony,’ Rhodey reassured him, ‘I told you already, if it takes me being with you every night to make the nightmares better than that’s fine with me. But I think you should talk to someone about this, someone a bit more qualified than I am.’

‘I saw a therapist for a while,’ he admitted, ‘but that was back when I was refusing to admit quite how royally fucked in the head I am, so most of the time was just her trying to convince me that it was okay to not be okay and me telling her there was absolutely nothing wrong with me, it was just a couple of bad dreams.’ He sighed, thinking back on the memory, ‘to be honest I’m not even sure why I bothered going to the sessions since I was convinced nothing was wrong with me. Maybe I knew, I just wasn’t ready to admit it.’

‘Maybe you should talk to someone again Tony,’ Rhodey suggested, ‘I really think it would help, especially if this time you actually admit to them that there’s some things you need to talk about instead of being all stoic and ignoring your emotions.’

‘Hey,’ Tony warned with a laugh, ‘don’t go all lecture-y on my again, I get enough of those ‘you messed up’ talks from Pepper already.’

‘To be fair, you do tend not to listen to people, even if you know what they’re saying is right.’

Tony laughed, it was true what Rhodey was saying, and the little voice at the back of his head wondered if that was why the avengers hated him. He decided to bring it up with Rhodey, he tended to spend more time around the rest of the team while Tony just tried his best to avoid them where at all possible.

‘Rhodes,’ he said, slightly quieter, still leaned again his side, ‘do the others hate me? Cause I think they do, especially Steve.’ He didn’t know why he was voicing these thoughts out loud, he doubted Rhodey would actually tell him if the others truly did dislike him. Rhodey was too kind for that, and it was one of the things Tony loved about him.

‘Of course they don’t Tones, and I’m not just saying that, they like you. Steve was just mentioning today that he never sees you around as much anymore. Maybe you should take some time out of the lab more often, might be good for you?’

Tony just nodded, but it was nice to know that his team didn’t hate him, probably, provided Rhodey had actually told him the truth instead of being nice to him so he didn’t feel bad. Still, he hadn’t been around the others for a long time and maybe he should see them more often.

They were a team after all, a mismatched and rag tag bunch of people who happened to be the best at what they did, but they didn’t really know each other properly, only being forced together by circumstance. He would set some time aside in his schedule for tomorrow to do that, working for Stark Industries was important, but maintaining a good relationship with the rest of his team was equally so.

‘Yeah, I’ll maybe join in with some of the training exercises tomorrow, I’ve not seen the others for a while actually.’ It had been longer than he wanted to admit, especially for the fact that they were meant to be a team, able to work together cohesively as a single unit.

But right now, he wanted to go to bed, he had spent a long time examining the notes from his meetings earlier that day and it had exhausted him, especially how broken his sleep had been the night before. He told Rhodey that he was going to bed, heavily implying to him that  _they_ were going to bed, but not wanting to ask him to stay. Thankfully, Rhodey knew him far too well for that.

‘Well it’s too late for me to go home now, I can sleep in a spare room if you would prefer but…’ he trailed off and Tony knew he was referring to their conversation that morning.

‘No, you can join me?’ His tone came out questioning and he hated himself a little for that, he didn’t need to be embarrassed, Rhodey had offered and it always helped. So, he made his way through to his room, brushing his teeth in the bathroom and abruptly stepping back from the mirror when he realised just how pronounced the dark circles under his eyes had become.

It reminded him of college, weeks without actual sleep, running on caffeine and half hour naps. One time when he had been determined to finish a project and had gone far too long without shutting his eyes, he had collapsed in the work room. He remembered being carried back to the dorm by Rhodey, only half conscious but still insisting he needed to finish the robot he was working on.

There seemed to be an ongoing theme here, and he wondered just how fucked up his life would be if he didn’t have Rhodey. He often took for granted just how much Rhodey meant to him, he probably would’ve had a mental break down after he broke up with Pepper had it not been for him. Well, he kind of did breakdown, it was just easier to have someone to pull him out of his head when it got too dark in there.

He snuggled up in bed, and felt Rhodey lift the covers to join him, he could get used to this, but he probably shouldn’t. It wasn’t going to last, like he kept telling himself, he couldn’t get Rhodey to keep doing this just to make him happy, that wouldn’t be fair. But he pretended everything was fine as he felt Rhodey’s arms wrap around him and he leant back into the embrace. He shut his eyes, and he could deal with this in the morning, he could just be happy in the other’s arms for now, and he was so exhausted it only took a few seconds for him to be fast asleep.

 

_It was so hot, unbearably hot in the cave. And it was so loud, all he could hear was the echoing demands of his captors mixed with Yinsen’s screams as he was reminded once again that he didn’t save him. But the suit was lying on the ground in front of him, he hadn’t escaped, and the world around him was on fire, and the smoke was filling his lungs. He tried to breathe, but all he inhaled was the smoke, and he couldn’t get air into his lungs, he couldn’t. He couldn’t breathe, there was no air. There was no air. There was no-_

 

He awoke, heaving in a deep breath, though it didn’t feel like the air was making its way into his lungs. He forced himself to slow his breathing, in- two, three, four- out- two, three, four. And he noticed a hand on his back, rubbing small circles, grounding him back in reality. He wasn’t alone, he was here in bed with Rhodey. _Safe. He was safe._

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Leave feedback- let me know what you think of this fic!


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